UP assembly opens on stormy note

Lucknow, May 28 (IANS) The first day of the maiden session of 16th Uttar Pradesh assembly began on a stormy note Monday with BSP legislators creating a ruckus.

Legislators of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members trooped near the speaker's chair and tore copies of Governor B.L. Joshi's speech and hurled paper balls. The governor should speak only for two minutes.

The BSP members kept shouting slogans against the UP government.

Spearheading the bedlam was Swamy Prasad Maurya, leader of the opposition and a close Mayawati aide.

As BSP members stood atop chairs in the house, carrying banners and shouting anti-Akhilesh Yadav slogans, Maurya charged the Samajwadi Party government with running a "transfer industry" in the state.

He alleged that UP was in the grip of mafia Raj and legislators were taking bribes in the name transferring officials to different parts of the state.

Refusing to allow the governor to complete his address, some legislators tried to storm in the centre of the house and disrupted the proceedings.

In the melee, many legislators fell down as they rushed towards the speaker's chair, sporting caps made of banners, in the blue colour of the BSP party.

Following the ruckus, Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey adjourned the house till 12.30 p.m.

Maurya defended the action of his party colleagues, saying the BSP was just doing what had been mandated to them by the people.

"This government is a government of mafia and we cannot allow it to plunder the state in name of transfers," Maurya said.

He alleged that the government had failed on all fronts, including wheat procurement, law and order and in improving the plight of farmers.

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had convened an all-party meeting at his residence Sunday had asked all parties to cooperate so that the house could be run for a longer period than in the past.

On June 1, Akhilesh Yadav, who also holds the charge of finance, will present his maiden budget.

Amid the bedlam, as security personnel took on the BSP members, Akhilesh Yadav and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohd Azam Khan sat through smiling.

The Samajwadi Party is placed comfortably in the 403-member house, with 224 legislators. BSP has 85 members.